Saturday's Critters #188

Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

If you love critters like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!


For this week's post I am sharing some birds we saw while visiting Sequim and Port Angeles Washington. This was our second trip to this area of Washington state, the last trip was back in 2015. During our visit we went to a few birding spots like the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and the Dungeness Spit, Helen Pond at Three Crabs Road and the Ediz Hook in Port Angeles.

The Dungeness Spit located in Sequim at the Dungeness National Wildlife refuge.

At the Dungeness Nat'l Wildlife Refuge we had to wait out a little rain before we hiked the trail down to the Dungeness Spit. Below are photos of the trail thru the woods, a Rough Skinned Newt, a view of the Dungeness Spit on a cloudy day, driftwood, two Black Oystercatchers, a large group of Cormorants and maybe with a few Mergansers. We found another Rough-skinned Newt on the way back up the trail.

There were signs warning hikers about these Rough-skinned Newts that produce a toxin from their skin. The toxin could irritate your eyes or skin if you should happen to pick up or touch one of these Rough-skinned Newts. They could be seen on the trail or crossing the trail as we walked.

I have a lifer from my 2017 Washington trip it is the Western Sandpiper seen below with the Semipalmated Plover.

Semipalmated Plovers and some Western Sandpipers were seen along Three Crabs Road in Sequim.

We spent the night in Port Angeles Washington and we visited the Ediz Hook, another spit of land. Here we saw a big flock of Brant Geese and lots of Rhinoceros Auklets.

Lots of Brant Geese at the Ediz Hook spit in Port Angeles Washington.

I appreciate and thank everyone who links up their post and for all the wonderful comments! I hope you enjoy my post and photos too!



Here is a list of my linky parties;
Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.

Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Saturday's Critters #100

Saturday's Critters #100

Hello, we have reached # 100 for my Saturday's Critter linky party.  Thanks so much to everyone who has been with me since the start of Saturday's Critters. I appreciate all my blogging friends who have linked up and joined in with all the critter fun. Who doesn't like critters, they are all so cute! Thank you again to the visitors and for the nice comments.

EDIT: I am linking up with Favorite Fotos thanks to Lydia at Where the Wild Things Were

I am sharing some of the birds and Humpback Whales we saw during our Port Angeles Whale Watching trip during our Washington State visit.

A group of Common Murre being led by a single Rhinoceros Auklet

In the mosaic above is the Rhinoceros Auklet, a common bird seen near the coast of Washington State.

Whale Watching Port Angeles

It was exciting to see 4-5 Humpback Whales during our whale watching trip on Oct 5th.

A young Humpback Whale seen playing with the kelp during our whale watching trip out of Port Angeles, Washington.

The Common Murre were common birds seen in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This Strait is the body of water between Washington State and Victoria British Columbia Canada. You can see the two red spots on the map included above where our whale watching tour was based.

Another main attraction beside seeing all the whales were the Harbor Seals, Elephant Seals and Sea lions at the Race Rocks  & Lighthouse which is closer to Canada than the USA.

The Race Rocks Reserve includes the marine animals, sea birds and fish. Above the rocks are covered with various Cormorants, mostly the Pelagic Cormorant.

An InLinkz Link-up

To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni.  Also check out Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting this fun meme.

Hurricane Ridge, Olympic Nat'l Park

I have a list below of memes I am joining for this week, and to save time I am doing one post for all. They are all fun memes to participate in...I hope you can join in with the fun  and check out some of the participating posts. Special thanks to all the wonderful host and their memes, I hope you have some time to check them out.

I guess some of you noticed I was missing from the blogging world, hubby and I visited Washington State and the Olympic National Park for 9 days. Using a Port Angeles hotel as our base we traveled all around the Olympic Peninsula. On Sept 30th we flew from Maryland to Seattle arriving by noon we drove to Sequim had a quick meal and then checked into our Port Angeles hotel. On the same day we still had to time to drive to the Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.

Above are some of my first views of the park were the birds and critters. The American Robin, Red-breasted Nuthatch,  Gray Jay, one of my Washington state lifers the Varied Thrush, the black-tailed deer and a chipmunk.

Our shadows on the trail..The subalpine forest is a transitional zone where trees grow smaller due to the weather.

The sign above list some of the mountain peaks, the highest summit in the park is Mount Olympus at 7980-foot.

Above views from the Hurricane Ridge visitor center and the overlooks.

The hazy international view from the trail is the city of Port Angeles, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Victoria British Columbia.

Views of some pretty reds on the mountain side and the subalpine firs.

The Red-Breasted Nuthatch one of my favorite birds, it has been a few years since seeing one in my yard. I hope you enjoyed this visit to Hurrican Ridge and the Olympic National Park. I have so many photos from our trip and visit to this park. Thanks for visiting my post and as always I appreciate your comments.

Thanks to Judith our  host of Mosaic Monday

Thanks to Mersad for hosting Through My Lens.

Thanks to Monica for hosting NF Trees

Thanks to Michelle for hosting Nature Notes

Thanks to Sue for hosting Wordless Wednesday

Thanks to the hosting team of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks to Stewart for hosting Wild Bird Wednesday